TravelStream™ news feed for member finefine on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/finefine en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:57:27 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148931900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148931900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148931900/tpod.html Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:57:27 -0400 Post Peace Corps Trip from Suriname to Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecaudor.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Uyuni, Bolivia

Amy and I seem like old friends. Traveled from Villa Tunari, quick stop in Cochabamba, to Oruro. Not much going on there, just shopped and ate pizza...killed time before our super cold bus ride (due to broken window molding) to Uyuni.

Signed up for a tour of Uyuni's famous salt flats. Boarded a Land Rover with 3 Brits and an Isreali. All cool people, making it a fun trip. Also, our guide and vehicle sucked, that gave us more to joke about. The flat, or Salar de Uyuni was surreal. An expanse of white reaching not quite as far as the eye can see, but pretty darn far. Took the optical illusion photos that EVERYBODY makes when their there then continued on for two days to visit mountain, lagoons and hot springs. Hesitant to enter the springs as we figured we'd freeze upon exiting, considering it was so darn cold there, but it wasn't as bad as we thought and we were happy we did it.

Land Rover broke down on the way back. Our group broke up as we got rides wherever there was space in other vehicles.

Back in Uyuni, had pizza at the famous Minuteman, owned by an American ex-pat from New England.

Next stop, Tupiza, by train.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148758620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148758620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148758620/tpod.html Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:44:27 -0400 Post Peace Corps Trip from Suriname to Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecaudor.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Villa Tunari, Bolivia

Flew from Guyaramerin to Cochabamba, a big busy city. Totally got ripped off on the taxi from the airport to the hostel, but those guys got ya by the balls, you know. Met a Brit checking into the hostel at the same time as me, then had dinner together.

Next day bus to Villa Tunari where I'd finally meet Amy was delayed, so hired a taxi to show me around town. Went up to the Giant Jesus statue and took nice pics of the city and surrounding hills.

Got a night bus to Villa Tunari, arriving 3 am. Too late to meet Amy but luckily found a hostel that let me in.

Next day walked the the animal refuge where Amy volunteered and met her in person after talking online for about a month. She seems cool, fun, a little intense maybe. We will travel together for a while and see how it goes.

I wanted to volunteer at this refuge, but after seeing it, it's not the place I imagined it to be. They need help, not with just the animals of course, but with the managment of the whole place.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148584920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148584920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148584920/tpod.html Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:34:49 -0400 Post Peace Corps Trip from Suriname to Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecaudor.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Guayaramerin, Bolivia

Flew from Manaus to Porto Velho, crashed for six hours on the airport bench, then got a taxi to the Bolivian border. Felt good as I crossed the border. Immediately changed some money and bought lunch. Had soup and a beer. So cheap, could not believe it. Glad to be here.

Rode a little scooter-taxi thing to a hostel. Realized later that I got kind of ripped off on the price of the ride, as I wasn't used to the new currency yet, but it was't too bad. Anway, stayed two nights at 30 Bolivianos a night.

Walked around town with a big grin on my face. So happy to be in Bolivia. And I got a kick out of the people! So cute bundled up in their winter clothes! (It wasn't that cold anyway, but a little chilly. Still...) Those that weren't walking down the street rode around on scooters. Amazing how many people can fit on one tiny scooter...1,2,3,4 people! Enough room for the whole family. Who needs an SUV?

Met two Brazilian girls who took me out to dinner, although I paid of course. Hung out with them a while till I got fed up with them asking me to buy them stuff.

Flying to Cochabamba tomorrow.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148321160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148321160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/south_america/1148321160/tpod.html Mon, 22 May 2006 14:18:20 -0400 Post Peace Corps Trip from Suriname to Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecaudor.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Manaus, Brazil

In Manaus now. Only took two days from Paramaribo, but two long days they were. Many hot long hours in crammed buses, and a few ferry rides in Guyana. Didn´t stop long in any one place...not really any places I wanted to stop in anyway, especially Guyana. I´ve heard it´s a dangerous place and Í believe what I hear. All went well though. Was worried about bandits in Guayan. Heard from a Danish tourist that they frequently stop the buses and take off with all the luggage, leaving all the passengers stranded in the middle or nowhere. Lukily we never encountered them.

Manaus is cool. Seems like Brazil is too. Never really considered making it a priority to see, but now I´m reconsidering.

Traveled with four good friends from PC Suriname. We only spent two days on the road and three days together here before they left today on a boat going up the Amazon to Belem. My flight to Porto Velho is late tonight and I hope to be in Bolivia tomorrow afternoon. More from there.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/suriname_04-06/1147018980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/suriname_04-06/1147018980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/finefine/suriname_04-06/1147018980/tpod.html Sun, 07 May 2006 12:36:38 -0400 Peace Corps Suriname

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Paramaribo, Suriname

I'm sitting on a large granite boulder on the shore of the Tapanahoni River, about three kilometers from the Amerindian village of Palumeu in southern Suriname. There's a large freshly caught piranha roasting over a simple fire. I'm reflecting on how Glenn caught the fish, calling it to us underwater by swishing water in his mouth, then shooting it with a simple bow and harpoon made from a liana, fishing line, and a sharpened recycled metal rod. Sandra, Glenn's young and beautiful wife, is lovingly picking near invisible mites off my friend's back with the tip of a kitchen knife. I'm asking myself two things: How did I end up here? And why can't I have someone to remove the parasites from my skin? Hey, a guy gets lonely living so long single in the jungle!

Well, I ended up here because this is where I always wanted to be. I don't mean in the rainforest of Suriname, I mean just someplace foreign and challenging, someplace where I would teach and learn, someplace where I would live for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Since it's inception in 1961, Peace Corps has sent over 182,000 eager volunteers to 138 countries to work in such fields as sustainable agriculture, business development, AIDS prevention, and education. There are currently 7,800 volunteers serving in 72 countries. Peace Corps volunteers are given an opportunity to strengthen the global community a little by living for two years in a developing country, learning its language, and making friends and sharing skills with its people, all the while being supported by host-country Peace Corps staff, community counterparts, and the Peace Corps headquarters in Washington D.C. Volunteers work as cultural ambassadors for America, too, showing people around the world that not all Americans embrace the same beliefs and political views. Also, we bring back to America knowledge of the country where we served, and are encouraged to educate the folks back home about it.

My desire to join the Peace Corps goes back a long time. My mom tells me that as a kid I'd get excited when the commercials came on TV. In high school I remember looking through the Peace Corps brochures and telling myself that it was what I was going to do after college. Sure enough, six months after graduating I found myself on a plane from Detroit headed to a country most Americans know very little about, wondering what I was getting myself into. Would the next two years of my life be as exciting and enlightening as I imagined? Would I be able to help a community like I wanted? Would this be the adventure I looked forward to for so long?

The answer to these questions is, well, kind of. I remember looking through those brochures in the high school guidance office, looking at the map of where volunteers currently served, eighty or so countries, and imagining what the experience would be like in, say, Romania, or Vanuatu, or Ethiopia. Fast forward to when it came time to applying, me hesitating at the question that asked where in the world I'd like to serve. Having never traveled overseas and being impatient to see the whole world, I couldn't make up my mind. I could have easily left it all to chance by answering "Anywhere," but in that instant Eastern Europe or the South Pacific seemed like an attractive option, so I checked those. Imagine my surprise when a few months later I get a call.

"Hello, Matthew. This is Jack Rogers from Peace Corps. How do you feel about going to South America?"

Supposing South America could be just as exciting as anywhere else in the world, and knowing that they didn't send volunteers to Brazil anymore, I replied, "Sure. I'd like to learn Spanish."

"Actually, Matthew, it's a Dutch speaking country." Curious, I thought. Shows how much I know about South America. "Ok," I said.

"Great!" the voice on the other side said, "We'll send you all the information in the mail."

Click. I hung up and realized he failed to tell me the name of the country. It wasn't hard to figure out though. Dutch. South America. A few seconds on Google and voila! Suriname. Now, just where the heck was that?

A few more minutes online and I knew a little more: Small country north of Brazil. Dutch heritage. Dutch and Sranan Tongo chief languages. Gold and bauxite mining. 80f land area still undeveloped rainforest. Home to Hindustani, Indonesian, Chinese, Creole, and indigenous peoples, as well as many Maroons, the descendents of escaped slaves living traditionally in the bush. I didn't know any of this! I didn't even know where Suriname was on the map! Now I was going to be immersed in it. It would become my home. Wow!

Two years later, I'm nearing the completion of my service in Suriname and I'm more knowledgeable about this country than my home state of Michigan. But here's the funny thing, out of all those places I could have ended up, the Peace Corps Life I ended up having is remarkably similar to the way I first imagined it would be. I was a boy and driving somewhere with my mom; we were talking about the Peace Corps. I must have seen the commercial and asked what it was. She told me it was an organization that sent volunteers all over the world to help people. The world was big and I wanted to see it, and helping people is good, so I was interested. Out of all the examples she could have giving to describe the experience to me, she said, "Imagine Matthew, living in the Amazon rainforest, sleeping in a hammock, mosquitoes everywhere, snakes and scorpions and all sorts of creepy-crawly things! You'd probably love it." And I do, mom.

It's been difficult, educational, and incredible living and working in the Trio and Wajana Amerindian community of Palumeu. I have my own simple hut, just like my neighbors. I sleep in a hammock and bathe in the river. I cook over a wood fire. No electricity. No telephone. No internet. Much different from the life I left behind. That's something you've got to hand to us volunteers, our willingness to "give up" the comforts of home for the hardships of developing communities. Some people think we're crazy for doing it, while others think we're altruists, but it's more like a mix of insanity and idealism if you ask me. We welcome the challenges we encounter, even the malaria, dengue, giardia, infections, and worms, all the while filled with hope that we can be a positive influence for healthy, sustainable development in this beautiful country.

Peace Corps is in its eleventh year in Suriname. To date over 250 volunteers have served in here. We have collectively assisted over 124,000 Surinamese citizens and organizations; we have lived in over 86 of the communities that make up this diverse nation.

I've learned a lot about myself, my abilities, and my limitations the world, this country, and the many cultures that coexist here. I've had the opportunity to do things here that I could do no place else, for instance, searching for the rare bird, the Cock of the Rock, freeing an anaconda from a fishing net, drinking lots and lots of cassiri, (a fermented cassava beverage), eating strange and wild foods, and dressing in the traditional Amerindian loincloth and headdress.

And I'm doing good work too, I think. How do I know? When people say things like this: "Mi lobi fa yu tan dja nanga unu. Yu no musu gwe." I love how you live here with us. You shouldn't leave. "Fu sa'de yu no trouw dja nanga meki wan babi? Tan dja, yeri!" Why don't you get married here and make a baby? Stay here.

Like all volunteers, when I leave, when I say goodbye to Suriname, I hope to leave some mark of my presence here. It's very well possible though to serve for two years and not be able to see or touch the positive effect we've had. When it comes down to it, the solid friendships we've forged with the people of our communities may be the only thing that leaves a mark. Of course, the bakery I helped Sikiwans build and the English I taught to Glenn and Sammy counts for something, but the mark I've left in the hearts of the people who affectionately call me "Matchew Fine Fine" is priceless. I'll be sad when I leave, but I'll be back to visit someday, and you can be sure I'll hold this experience close to my heart for the rest of my life.
]]>